When Arnold Schwarzenegger ran for Governor a year and a half ago, his campaign made strong indictments against the "special interests" that controlled Sacramento. As The Los Angeles Times' Jordan Rau reports, the Governor has apparently changed his mind and is now freely aligned with special interests.

While Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has declared war on Sacramento's "special interests," he has helped one of California's most effective business lobbies — car dealers — accelerate to new levels of influence in the Capitol. Dealerships are among the most regulated sales industries in the state, with lemon laws that dictate precisely how they may market their products and a state board that can ban dealers from moving within 10 miles of another showroom peddling the same make of car.

Still, they have always made good mileage in Sacramento, going back to when Los Angeles dealer Holmes Tuttle was one of Ronald Reagan's earliest boosters and closest confidants. And in the last year, their political machine has been souped up.

After the dealers and the rest of the auto industry helped underwrite Schwarzenegger's 2003 gubernatorial campaign, giving him more than $1 million through his first year in office, the Republican sided with dealers last year by killing their most hated piece of legislation, which would have restricted their loan practices.

The dealers played a central role in the passage of Proposition 64, which limits lawsuits against businesses. Dealers financed a third of the campaign's $12-million cost, and Schwarzenegger stumped for it in the final weeks of the fall election.

Schwarzenegger is a deft politician, and the sooner the people of California realize this, the better off they will be.